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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through 29-33.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the subject of "The Noble Experiment"?
(a) The Cuban revolution.
(b) Voting during World War I.
(c) Drinking during Prohibition.
(d) A scientific breakthrough Mencken reported on.

2. What does Mencken call a man who resists the charms of women?
(a) An exceedingly wise stone statue.
(b) A most distinguished gentleman.
(c) A most disgusting cad.
(d) A most rare beast indeed.

3. How would Mencken respond to the notion that William Jennings Bryan was an earnest man?
(a) He was earnest to the public, but in private he was a swindler and schemer.
(b) He was not earnest; he was inherently two-faced.
(c) Earnest or no, he did the right thing in the Scopes monkey trial.
(d) He might have been earnest, but that was about his only admirable quality.

4. How was Theodore Dreiser like Joseph Conrad, according to Mencken?
(a) Both men were inherently optimistic.
(b) Both men shared an innate pessimism.
(c) They both seemed to hate women.
(d) They both had a love of pirate adventures and the sea life.

5. What did Gene the magistrate do with respect to an old man in his court accused of wife beating?
(a) Gene threatened the man with made-up punishments to get him to reform.
(b) Gene had the court bailiff beat the man, just as he had beat his wife.
(c) Gene applauded the man for keeping his wife well-behaved.
(d) Gene put him in jail for two years.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the result of Mencken's attempt to trace the lineage of the Anglo-Saxon race?

2. How do common folk read the Bible, according to Mencken in "Holy Writ"?

3. In "The National Letters," what was the cause of all the "diseases" which afflict America?

4. According to Mencken, the intellectual tradition of Whitman and Emerson had been transferred to which man?

5. Which of the following was NOT a name applied to William Jennings Bryan by Mencken?

(see the answer key)

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